2013: More catching up!

In April 2013 I took a workshop with the amazing Sue Benner .  The workshop was all about abstraction and we were asked to bring some examples of artwork from another artist we admired.  Sue showed us images of artwork done by past artists who had used artworks they admired as inspiration for further abstraction studies.  The artist I chose for my inspiration was Lynne Perrella.  This was my first workshop with the Front Range Contemporary Quilters and I was hugely intimidated by my fellow students and Sue herself.  In spite of that I had a wonderful time and learned more than I could have hoped to in a few short days.  At the end of the workshop I had two very incomplete pieces of art, but seeing as I would be jetting off to Connecticut three weeks later I was not able to continue working on these pieces when I got home. The workshop in CT with Lynne Perrella and Michelle Ward was one of the best things I have ever done and also left me with unfinished artwork.  I spent the summer working on those pieces and then along came the workshop with Katie Pasquini Masopust and more incomplete art.  Well, I'm happy to say that I have now finished all the artwork I started in these various workshops.  At the end of the Sue Benner workshop my first piece looked like this:

And now it looks like this:

The photo does not do it justice as you cannot really see the lovely sheen of the silks and the sparkly organzas.  My best friend made the little polymer clay faces for me and I just love them!  Wow, putting these photos together is an interesting instruction in photography!  Hmmm.......  

The second piece that I began at that workshop looked like this when I got home:

Sorry for the blurry and off color photo.  Knowing it was nowhere near finished, I did not put much effort into taking a good shot.  I was pretty excited by this piece as it was quite a departure from my usual stuff and I liked where it was going.  After practicing on other things to explore monoprinting and quilting options, I ended up with this:

One of the most important things I learned from the three workshops was that I tend to be much too literal.  I am now exploring ways to take things further and to expand on my original concepts.  Invaluable!  Each of the pieces I began in a workshop last year has led to other pieces of art and more ideas.  I learned new techniques and made friends and I can't wait to do it again in 2014.

2013: Catching Up

2013 was a busy year!  I made a ton of art and really learned a lot.  I was fortunate enough to attend three very different art workshops and I spent most of the year either finishing pieces that I began at those workshops or making art inspired by what I learned.  In September I took a great workshop with Katie Pasquini-Masopust and I recently finished some of the work I began there.  The first piece is called "Cosmic Duet #1" and consists of two panels that are meant to be hung together.  The second piece is titled "Hot Graffiti".  I love both of them and love, love, love this technique!  Before this workshop I had never painted on canvas before and I love the way it feels and the fact that you can sew it.  How awesome to combine all my art loves:  painting, collage, and sewing!  Elements of this technique would apply nicely to paper too, although to be honest, the thing that makes these pieces sing is the quilting, which you could not do on paper. My mind is off and running with ideas for experiments! 

These are photos I took with my phone camera of the canvases for "Hot Graffiti" prior to cutting them up.  Sorry they are a bit blurry.  I had never used the camera prior to doing this!  Sometimes I feel like a Luddite.  LOL!

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Sue Benner Workshop

Well hey there, I'm back!  My life got rather busy for a while but I'm here now to explain some of what was going on.  First of all, I got promoted to a new position at work.  Yea me!  However, I still have to do my old job at the same time until they get someone hired to replace me.  So I'm a bit overwhelmed at work.  I am lucky, in that I don't have to bring my work home with me, but at the end of a workday or a workweek, I'm pretty pooped.

On top of that I have been taking art workshops.  I'm here to tell you that it is totally worth spending the money!  The first workshop I took was in April, with the fabulous art quilter

Sue Benner.  She has been my art quilting hero for a long time and I was so thrilled to get a chance to take a class with her.  The class was put on by the Front Range Contemporary Quilters, of which I am a member.  This workshop was about abstract art.  Sue was incredibly knowledgeable about fine art in general and showed us a lot of great stuff about the development of abstract art.  We focused on the ways in which artists of the past and present have used other artists work as inspiration for their own art.  It was fascinating to see how the other workshop participants approached this idea.  I soon realized that I was taking a much to literal approach to using an image of something as inspiration for an abstract piece of my own.  The results of our first exercise stunk so bad that I won't even show it.  I learned so much from looking at other peoples work.  In the end I started making progress on the piece above but soon realized that I wanted to work with sheers and that Wonder Under fusible just wasn't going to give me the results I was looking for with sheer fabrics.  I decided to put this aside to work on at home, where I have some Misty Fuse.  Here is a detail shot of the part I worked on for a while:

Since I didn't want to continue with the piece above right then and there I started another one (below).  I'm really happy with where this is going.  I plan to make two or three along the same lines so I can try out some different techniques on it, including monoprinting.  I may even print this to both paper and fabric so I can play with it some more.

The rectangles with the black lines are actually paint covered paper towel with black fabric lines fused to it.  I so love to combine paper and fabric!  I took a monumental amount of stuff to this workshop.  Getting ready for it took me two weeks!  When I got home I put away a few things but mostly I just piled the stuff up in a corner and got on with preparing for the next workshop.  I'll talk about that in a separate blog post.

This was my first workshop with the Front Range Contemporary Quilters group.  One of the things I enjoyed most was meeting the other participants.  Everyone was so friendly and helpful.  Some of these women are very experienced and accomplished artists.  We had lovely conversations while working and while sitting together for meals.  A couple of other women on my side of the room were also relatively new to the group and we all got along really well.  We decided to try forming a critique group that will meet once a month.  I've been longing for connection to other people working in textiles and mixed media so I am so happy to have met these people.  Now I feel like I am part of the group and going to monthly FRCQ meetings will be twice as fun.

In parting I have to apologize for the crappy photos.  Since these are "before" photos I didn't worry about setting up optimal photo conditions.  If I wait to have perfect pictures I will never get another blog post done!  When I finish these projects I will work a little harder at photographing them.  LOL!

State of the art '13 fiber art exhibit

I can't believe I didn't blog about this earlier!  I have two pieces of art in this wonderful show!  As a new member of the Studio Art Quilt Associates I was thrilled to have an opportunity to enter something in a local exhibit.  This is by far the best art exhibit I've had the privilege of being a part of, but I do happen to be partial to textile art.  There are pieces from some well known and professional artist in this show so I felt like I was in somewhat exhalted company.  The artwork included everything from pieced quilting to wholecloth quilting, mixed media work and thread painting.  There are even some three dimensional textile pieces. The only discordant note was that they spelled my name wrong on the labels next to my pieces.  Honestly I wonder sometimes if I should just change the way I spell my name, because no one ever gets it right.  LOL!

Published in Quilting Arts Mag!

When my copy of the October/November issue of Quilting Arts Magazine arrived today I about burst from excitement.  A couple of months ago I entered a piece in the "What's Your Signature Color" reader challenge and my piece made it into the magazine.  This is a small 8" x 8" quiltlet made of fabric that I pieced, stamped, quilted, embroidered and embellished.  The squares are fabric-paper edged with gold and layered with small fabric scraps.  Sadly the blurb next to my piece says I live in Lakewood, California when it should say Colorado, but that little error hardly dents my thrill at being published in one of my favorite magazines.

My blog has been languishing lately for lack of acceptable photos to post.  As an art blogger I feel like I can't post anything unless I have a photo to go with the post, but my artwork has all been in awkward stages and my photo sessions have not been very successful of late.  The other day I tried to take photos of some of my artwork on the day that I had my eyes dilated.  Needless to say, those photos did NOT come out well!  LOL!

For several months now I have been working on artwork in a raspberry, lime, plum color scheme.  I've been trying to use the same basic materials in each piece so that they are part of a series, but I have not been trying to make each piece similar to any other piece.  Frankly I'm getting sort of tired of working with the same materials over and over again, but at the same time the ideas just keep on coming.  Money is really tight in my world right now so I'm also trying to play with ways to make the most of the materials I have.  Ways to use every scrap.  Sometimes I think this way of thinking holds me back since I feel like I have to a use what I already have.  But it is so easy to fall prey to the idea that a new art supply or tool will magically cause me to make amazing, inspired art.  Anyway, working in a series has proven to be a very productive approach for me.  

The piece above is made from leftover backing paper from painted Wonder Under, and stained newspaper that have been woven together.  I used t-shirt transfer paper to add a word cloud to the surface and then I added a swipe of pearlescent white paint and splatters of white gesso.  Earlier in this process I had created a "fabric" from little scraps of other fabrics that I quilted in spirals and then cut into piece that I finished with a blanket embroidery stitch.  I added these squares with glue and stitch and then added a few finishing embroidered motifs.  Then I mounted the whole things on a painted canvas background.

This piece is also made of woven papers.  Specifically embossed wallpaper and fabric paper that I made of all sorts of materials.  I stitched purple organza flowers over the top and added the quilted bottom portion and a border.

I have some plans for this series is I can make a few dreams come true.  There are several other pieces in the series but some of them aren't finished yet.  More photos to come!

Cat Hair Studio

I wanted to call my blog Cat Hair Studio but the name was already taken.  There's a good reason for wanting to call it that.  Everything I make ends up covered in cat hair!  Short of closing the door while I work there is no possible way to keep the cats out of the studio, and frankly, I enjoy their company.  Once I ended up with a cat with blue paint on his paws!  OMG, the chaos!  LOL.  I had to scramble to catch him before he tracked blue paint all over the house or tried to lick it off.  There is a rule that applies to cats as well as people....DON'T EAT YOUR PAINT!  This lovely glimpse of a newly finished piece is posted merely to amuse the cat lovers out there.  Don't worry, the  hair will be removed and better photo's will be taken.  I'm thinking of submitting this piece and a couple of others that are part of a series to some magazine or other.  I just have to finish everything first!

A new mixed media book

I signed up to be part of the C&T Publishing Creative Troupe and one of the great benefits is that I get to read PDF versions of their books for free as long as I post book reviews. Check it out! What a great opportunity! I've been considering writing book reviews for a long time now, seeing as I have a huge library of art books! Here is my first review for C&T Publishing:

More Fabric Art Collage by Rebekah Meier is a treasure trove of techniques that will appeal to any mixed media artist. Many of the techniques presented in this book have been around for a while but the author does an excellent job of explaining the techniques in simple terms that will make it easy for any artist to get started. She does not address the problems that can arise from some of the techniques, such as getting fusible adhesive on your rubber stamps when embossing Fast2Fuse, or completely disintegrating your tyvek when ironing it! The techniques are presented in such a way to help you get started and to inspire ideas, but they are not in depth examinations of the process. The author suggests several ways to upcycle items found in your home or art studio, such as paper towels, aluminum foil, dryer sheets, soda cans, waxed paper and scraps left over from other art projects. With these ideas nothing goes to waste although you risk finding yourself wanting to save every last scrap that you might otherwise throw out! The author covers a really nice array of substrates/foundations, texturing mediums, and other art supplies such as transfer paper, and Rigid Wrap, and Mul-tex. There are numerous ideas in this book for using lots of techniques together in one cohesive piece of art which will appeal to all the technique junkies in the mixed media art world! All in all this is a very inspiring book and would be an excellent resource for an art group looking to work on a book study. The artwork shown in this book is a bit more sophisticated than that show in her previous book and is very inspiring. Rebekah Meier uses these techniques to create artwork that is layered, interesting and feminine. This is a book to return to again and again for ideas and inspiration.

Black Flowers

Here is a new mixed media piece that I recently completed.  In the March/April 2011 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine there was an article by Susan Pickering Rothamel and Frankie Fioretti about making restructured paper using Perfect Paper Adhesive.  As a collage artist and art journaler I had about a ton of scraps so I thought this project would be just right for me.  I was totally thrilled with the outcome but could not decide for quite a while what I wanted to do with it.  It was so pretty just the way it was that I considered calling it finished but in the end I decided to try adding some flowers.  I did all this work creating and stitching down some paper flowers and hated the way the looked.  LOL!  So I carefully cut the shapes out, leaving square flower shaped holes.  I like the way the collage paper looked on a background of black brocade so I added some batting to the back, secured the whole shebang with fusible webbing and stitched it down with gold thread.  The flower centers are pieces of black card stock that I cut, folded, and edged with gold Smooch ink.  I mounted the whole thing on a small canvas that I painted with various antique-y colors, and stenciled with punchinella.

In this detail picture you can see some of the black on black brocade and the little gold spiral I stitched in various places.  The Perfect Paper adhesive is really great to work with and I find myself using it in my journals as well.  My pages don't stick together like they do when I use matte medium.  Yea!

Art Quilting Studio magazine

I had the great privilege to be published in the summer 2011 issue of Art Quilting studio which Stampington and Co. just began re-publishing this year.  When I saw that they had a call for entries I only had one week left to get something off to them so I quickly put everything together and stuffed it in a box.  The only photo's I had were terrible and its taken me forever to get around to taking some better ones.  This piece began when I decided to try out some techniques using crumpled craft paper and painted wonder under.  It just went from there until I found myself embroidering through several layers of paper and fabric.  Whew!  that was a chore.  The mountains at the bottom are made of painted tyvek and paper towels! 

Autumn Flowers art quilt

I recently completed this art quilt that I made to go in my new office.  Our offices relocated recently and the new building is painted in all these autumn colors.  My office has a gold accent wall and since autumn colors are not my favorite color choice I had to come up with something new to go on the walls.  While helping a friend move I was gifted with a piece of rayon fabric that was printed in a patchwork design in colors I knew would be just perfect to go on that gold wall!  I began by quilting the fabric with gold thread.  That really made the patterns pop!  I had placed red velvet behind some of the squares and after the quilting was done I cut out part of the rayon to show the red velvet in a reverse applique technique.  Then I decided to paint matte medium along the cut edges and coat them with gold glitter.  What a messy process!  I made some fabric paper in coordinating colors and cut out the rosette pieces which are glued down and then I placed tulle netting over them and stitched it down to ensure that the little pieces didn't lift up.  The little metal squares are made of foil candy wrappers fused to felt.  The large flowers were cut out of a wool blanket and stitched on with gold thread in a blanket stitch.  The centers of the flowers are made of candy wrappers and gold buttons.  I edged the quilt in gold cording and a copper eyelash yarn and mounted the whole thing on brown velvet stapled to a framed canvas.  It looks just great in my office!  Here is detail image:

Beryl Taylor workshop

In April I took a workshop presented by Beryl Taylor who happens to be one of my favorite artists.  Her book Mixed Media Explorations is what really got me started working on my own art.  She invented fabric-paper and I just couldn't wait to try it.  The workshop was a lot of fun and Beryl was so generous with her knowledge and art supplies.  We created three pieces during the workshop although I didn't actually get them finished until I got home.  The piece shown here is a small wall hanging that took me quite a while to finish.  It is created from fabric-paper, watercolor paper, stamps, embroidery, buttons, sequins and beads.

These are the covers for a min-book we made.  It is about 3 inches square.  Here you see some copper and aluminum tape that have been embossed and colored with alcohol inks.  Working with metal is the only thing I had not done before taking this workshop.  The rest of the pages of the book follow.  They are made with fabric-paper, felt, book pages, fabric, stamps, embossing powder, copper, etc. 

The last project we worked on was a steampunk quilt.  This is my least favorite of the three pieces.

Christmas Diamonds

Well I'm obviously not much of a blogger yet. I've been meaning to post these photos for two months. The holidays start in October in my family due to several birthdays and it just seems like there is never time to take care of tasks like this. Anyway, here is another project that I made this year. I got into a Christmas project frenzy for a while over the summer with the intent of having something to sell, turn into cards, etc. That didn't happen but I still enjoyed making Christmas-y things.  The only thing that makes this a Christmas project is the snowflakes.

fabric paper, bristol paper, tissue paper, acrylic paint, beads, embroidery, ribbon, stamping, glue, punched paper, brads, fabric

painted wonder under, painte paper towels, hand dyed string

Red and Purple Floral

Titling my art is something I have yet to figure out. In the meantime I tend toward a fairly literal description. This piece was completed earlier this year and is my first official piece of mixed media art. In 2006 I began studying fine arts at the Metropolitan College of Denver. I spent two wonderful years studying and thoroughly enjoying being an art student but I was compelled to leave school when I developed chronic pain issues and could not keep up anymore. After years of struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with my life I am determined to make art, even if I can't finish my degree right now. In my spare time, when I am not in too much pain, I make art. This piece came about after reading Beryl Taylors book "Mixed Media Explorations". I began by making my first ever fabric-paper. The floral motifs in some of the scrapbook paper I used inspired me to work on a floral theme. Like Beryl Talor, I adore fleur de lys and metallic elements. The flowers are all paper or fabric-paper. The fleur is fabric-paper with cut out red velvet wonder-undered and embroidered over the top. The background is cotton and hand embroidered with gold metallic floss. I machine embroidered over all the flowers and added beads. The lace edging is all hand dyed with the same paints and inks that I used on the fabric-paper. I learned a lot from making this piece. Right now it hangs in my bedroom where it matches the red and purple color scheme.